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Posts tagged ‘wrist bands’

Summer is fading fast. School is here for some and just around the corner for many! Today we’re featuring our top ten school wristband uses:

10. Events

Silicone wristbands can make a great souvenir for memorable school events like homecoming, dances, or other student body activities. More durable than Tyvek, they can also be used as a way to keep track of ticketing and entry.

9. Thank-you

Custom wristbands can be a great way to say thank you to teachers, volunteers, PTA members, and administration. Here’s one example of how parents banded together and used wristbands to thank teachers.

Custom wristbands make a great way to commemorate graduation — even sixth-grade graduation. Bands that read “Class of ____” are some of our most popular school wristband choices. For more graduation ideas, try this article on high school graduation traditions.

6. Clubs

Mark club membership and support by using wristbands for clubs: chess, art, drama, debate, etc. Different benefits and ways to use silicone bracelets for identification, pride, raising awareness, and fundraising can be found here.

5. Achievement Programs

Some teachers and administration like to use wristbands as part of reading, studying, or achievement programs. They can be used as either a reward for success in the program or be used to launch and garner attention towards and serve as a reminder for the program.

4. Sports

Track, football, soccer, cheer, basketball… custom sports wristbands are great for building team spirit (and fundraising) for school sporting events and teams. Here are ways to use wristbands for fundraising, building awareness, tournaments, and more.

3. Excellence

Schools often use wrist bands to promote and reward excellence in behavior and good deeds. One school used wristbands to promote kindness.

2. Awareness

Whether the cause is staying drug-free, stopping bullying, a suicide prevention message, health commitment, or Walk-to-School Day, wrist bands are a tangible, wearable reminder of the cause or promise and a great way to spread awareness among students and staff. Give them out at an assembly or classroom event to build awareness and even save lives.

1. SCHOOL SPIRIT

School mascot/school spirit wristbands are the number one most popular back-to-school wristband from Reminderband. They are used to fundraise, given out at assemblies or activities, worn around the school, and build school pride. They can also be used to commemorate anniversaries

Our new company, Impressions, became involved with a fundraising event for the American Cancer Society (ACS) local Relay for Life ® this year. It is an overnight outdoor family-focused event where teams of people from local businesses and the community participate in a 24-hr relay walk at a local track or field. In additional to celebrating survivors, its purpose is to raise funds and awareness about cancer prevention.

Reminderband custom silicone bracelets was a natural fit for this fundraising event. We requested Glow-in-the-dark, filled samples to present at the monthly Relay planning meeting. We knew that the other teams would be interested in selling the commemorative (filled) Glow-in-the-dark wristbands as part of their team’s fundraiser. When we turned the lights off to demonstrate the glow effect and they sold themselves. People also like the size selection and the price.

The initial order of 800 bands were sold to Relay teams (at a reduced price) to help boost their fundraising efforts. Team Impressions placed a subsequent order of 500 bands to be sold the day of the event. It is amazing how many people we see wearing these bands around town now. Reminderband helped our business raise funds for a great cause and helped us to become better known in the community. It’s a great conversation starter. We have already been contacted about future Reminderband orders for similar fundraising events and we are looking forward to next year’s Relay. .

We would like to express our appreciation to Jason and everyone at Reminderband silicone bracelets for the helpful service and quick turn-around that helped make this fundraising event a big success. It was a pleasure working with you and we look forward to doing even more business with Reminderband.

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Fourth-graders walking through a Shreveport neighborhood are a sign of a new trend in physical education.

Prompted by increasing concerns about childhood obesity, as well as a federal requirement that school systems promote health and nutrition, Caddo school officials are creating a wellness policy.

Board members are expected to approve the policy without comment after a public hearing June 27. The proposed policy consolidates parts of a lunch program and physical education guidelines and adds goals for teaching health and promoting nutritious eating habits.

Elementary-age students typically attend PE once a week. Teachers are finding other ways to work exercise into the day to meet a requirement that children have at least 150 minutes per week of physical activity, said Karen Eason, principal at Shreve Island Elementary in Shreveport.

On Friday, Shreve Island students pelted each other with foam balls in a dodge ball pit, ran a race over miniature hurdles and jumped rope during the school’s Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser.

“A lot of teachers are incorporating activity with math and reading,” Eason said. “Last week fourth-graders walked around the neighborhood taking pictures, then came up with LEAP-like problems based on the pictures.”

Shreve Island’s PTA plans to put a walking track around the school playground by this fall.

Walking, running and physical activity tied to lessons represent the new face of physical education, said Kaye Cochran, president-elect of the Louisiana Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Cochran, who just retired after teaching PE in Caddo Parish schools for 33 years, is working with the district’s physical education directors to pilot middle and high school programs that focus more on lifelong activity and fitness than team sports.

Tuesday, she and others with the state PE association handed out rubber wristbands bearing the exhortation, “No Child Left on Their Behinds!” to state legislators.

“I want people to bring fun and enthusiasm to PE,” Cochran said. “PE can be a dumping ground. I want to rise above that.”

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Meth has a way of hijacking a user’s personality, says Attorney General Rob McKenna. The drug is so addictive and causes so much long-term damage that it is best if young people never try it.

McKenna brought this message Wednesday to Olympic High School in his first presentation in Kitsap County. Methamphetamine has become the biggest law enforcement, social welfare and environmental problem in the state, he said, and urged students to partner with the community and look for ways to alleviate the drug use locally.

“We hope to give you information that will persuade you to never ever go near this stuff,” McKenna told the assembled students.

He listed items where the chemicals used for cooking meth are found — batteries, Drano, gasoline, etc. And cooking up the drug itself is cancer-causing.

Meth’s social welfare effects ripple through the child dependency proceedings McKenna’s office handles. There has been a 60 percent increase in foster care cases in the last 10 years, six to 10 times the growth rate of the general population, he said.

It wasn’t the statistics that made the most impression on the students.

“I knew drugs could mess you up, but I didn’t know they could put big holes in your brain just from two years’ (use),” senior Amy Rainwater said.

One of the videos McKenna showed students was an MTV story about a 22-year old ecstasy user, who gradually incurred sleeping problems and paranoia. A CAT scan her doctor ordered showed gaps in her brain in the memory and association areas. Her brain was that of a person in her 60s or 70s who had suffered multiple little strokes.

“Ecstasy is the chemical cousin of methamphetamine,” McKenna told students.

Ecstasy and meth both cause long-term damage to the brain, skin and central nervous system, all in addition to the chemicals’ cancer-causing properties.

There are more female than male users, perhaps because of meth’s weight-loss side effect, McKenna said.

Rainwater and her sister Sasha, a sophomore, had no problem believing that statistic. They said they knew a girl who started using meth three months ago and lost a lot of weight, but looked unhealthy. Now they don’t see their acquaintance at school very often.

After the first of two presentations Amy and Sasha wore “Don’t Meth Around” red rubber bracelets, which McKenna’s assistants distributed.

The sisters were most impressed with the story of Jamie Crawford of Yakima, a 21-year-old recovering meth addict.

Clean and sober for two years, Crawford served three months in a county jail, five months on house arrest and is still serving her five-year probation.

It was the prosecutor of her case who asked Crawford to share her story with various law enforcement groups. Then she started talking to students and OHS marked her fifth school visit with McKenna.

“If you can save the life of one child, it’s worth it to me,” Crawford said. “If someone had done this when I was in high school, it could have made a difference in my story.”

Her story, as she told the students, started when she was 15 and tried meth in the summer before her junior year of high school.

“Before I knew it, my class was graduating and I wasn’t there,” she said.

She barely completed her GED recently and is starting college, she added.

Crawford said when she was 18, she was at a friend’s house with other meth users and a 7-year-old boy. They all witnessed a murder and took off, jumping fences and dragging the child along with them.

She was arrested shortly afterwards.

“I had a good lawyer, so I got a slap on the wrist,” Crawford said.

Within a month, though, she was back using meth.

In a second arrest, in June 2004, Crawford was caught red-handed with 282 pieces of stolen mail and $150,000 in cash and checks.

She had a friend’s 8-month-old baby and 4-year-old child with her. The baby used to cry almost constantly and later Crawford and her friend learned that while they were getting high on meth, the baby was too. It cried during withdrawals.

She never thought becoming a meth addict would happen to her, Crawford said. Sitting through the attorney general’s presentation most students probably thought the same thing, she added.

“Hopefully you learned something from (the presentation) that will help you say no to it,” she told students.

McKenna said he hopes to come back to Kitsap to visit more schools. He has given more than 20 similar presentations throughout the state as part of the “Operation: Allied Against Meth” program McKenna launched in May 2005. A three-part strategy focuses on coordinating law enforcement efforts, working with community anti-meth action groups and educating youth.

“We’re spending a third of our time on the outreach component because it’s such an addictive drug,” McKenna said. “It’s much better for people never to try it.”

THE light blue rubber wristband Endesa chief executive Rafael Miranda was sporting for the London leg of last week’s roadshow looked slightly out of place – more the kind of adornment you would expect to see on an earnest, politically correct musician (Coldplay’s Chris Martin say), than on a man oozing the refinement of Spain’s business class.
But the wristband, made by employees of the Spanish power giant last October after local rival Gas Natural’s E21.3-a-share hostile bid, is a reminder of just how political the bid is in Spain. It pits Gas Natural, a creature of the powerful Barcelona region, backed by the Socialist government, against the once all-­powerful Madrid establishment.

After the Gas Natural offer was launched, employees had adopted the slogan of Endesa’s publicity campaign, “Pon Endesa en tu corazon”, or, “Put Endesa in your heart”, and made the bracelets.

Miranda told The Business last week: “It was at the beginning when the Gas Natural bid was really heavy. Everyone thought, ‘it will happen, it will happen’. Now the situation is different.”

He laughs at the understatement. In the nine months since Gas Natural launched its bid, Endesa, helped by a counter offer of E29.1bn ($37bn; £19.9bn) made by German utility Eon, has turned the tables on its rival. Gas Natural’s bid enjoyed such strong support from the Spanish government that ministers overruled Spain’s competition tribunal when it said the bid was uncompetitive.

When Germany’s Eon waded in with a E27.5-a-share cash counter offer, the government retroactively changed the law so Eon’s bid had to be approved by the National Energy Commission, a body almost completely under the thumb of the government.

Miranda has every reason to be pleased with himself.

He says: “We have demonstrated that, first of all, the offer from Gas Natural was very poor, it was very low. If we hadn’t done what we’ve done during this past nine months – the legal battle, promoting a competing offer – probably our shareholders would have been obliged to sell at E21.3 a share. We have clearly demonstrated this company is worth more than E30 a share and shareholders now have an offer of E27.5.”….

One was a longtime music teacher at Montville High School who directed numerous plays and musicals before succumbing to brain cancer at the age of 55 in April.The other was a 17-year old high school senior, stricken four years before with leukemia, a disease that slowly ebbed out his young life. He died in December.

Both were remembered this week at the high school, when the junior class sponsored a two-day walkathon on Tuesday and Wednesday in their honor.

The teacher, Jan Kucher-Patenaude, inspired two decades of students with her infectious smile, passion for music and exuberance for life.

The student, Antonio Colabelli, was known as a fighter to his classmates and teachers, who never complained when his cancer returned after a year in remission, and he had to be home-schooled at the start of his senior year.

Students have been collecting donations in homeroom all week and will continue to accept them until June 2, said Derek Sica, who is the junior class co-advisor and K-12 supervisor of world languages and ESL.

In addition, all proceeds from the walkathon will go towards medical expenses incurred by both the Patenaude and Colabelli families.

The total amount raised had not been determined as of Wednesday.

Junior class officers decided to hold a walkathon similar to one held for victim’s families at Robert R. Lazar Middle School after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said Donna DeMarco, junior class co-adviser.

“It’s one way we can come together again to help and show the families that we support them and their memories will live on,” said Sica.

On Wednesday afternoon, students hit the high school track for the second day of the walkathon. Money was raised through pledges for distance walked.

Six gym classes comprising nearly 150 students walked in unison, with many completing four or more laps in the 25-minute time period.

Cindy Beradino and Pat Vytell, two of the six gym teachers supervising the walk, said they were close to Kucher-Patenaude, or K-P, as she was affectionately called by both faculty and students.

Seva Kuznetsov, a 17-year old junior, said Kucher-Patenaude was instrumental in aiding his jazz band.

“She really helped us out,”said Kuznetsov. “She had so much spirit.”

Junior Jamie Grummer said the walkathon originally began as a fundraiser for the Colabelli family. When Kucher-Patenaude passed away last month, the students decided they would walk for both families.

“I think it’s important because their families really need a lot of money,” said Grummer, 17.

Fellow junior Chelsea Kramer, 17, said she sold orange rubber bracelets representing leukemia to raise money for the Colabelli family after Antonio died.

“I had some classes with him,” said Kramer. “It was hard to be close to him because he wasn’t in class a lot but he was the sweetest kid.”

Karen Potucek, who was Colabelli’s teacher for four years, said he was “such a fighter.”

“He just wanted to be in school, and have a normal life,”said Potucek. “He didn’t want anybody to know there was anything wrong with him.”

The district held fundraisers for Colabelli last year and a cabaret and silent auction was recently held for Kucher-Patenaude at Drew University, where her husband is chair of the theater arts department.

But the medical expenses for both families have been staggering, and events like the walkathon are worthwhile, said Beradino.

“It’s amazing what these kids have done to help these two families,” added Potucek. “It’s just a really wonderful thing.”

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When Ali Donahue was diagnosed at birth with cystic fibrosis, the average life expectancy for someone with the disease was 18 years. Now 18, Donahue is heading off to college at Boston University and expects to live a long and healthy life, complete with marriage, children and someday grandchildren.

“I don’t want people to think that I’m sick, that it’s over…I’m not dying…I’m planning on growing up and having a family and being a grandma and doing everything everybody else is doing,” said Donahue.

This is why she and a network of friends are on a mission to raise $5,000 in three weeks for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease affecting about 30,000 adults and children in the United States, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. A defective gene in sufferers of the disease causes the lungs to produce abnormally thick mucus, which can clog the lungs and lead to life threatening infections. The average life expectancy for a cystic fibrosis patient is in the early to mid 30s.

Donahue said she hasn’t experienced serious complications from the disease since she was about 13 and credits her good health to advancements in drug and technology research along with family and community support.

The money raised for cystic fibrosis research has improved her quality of life and increased her life expectancy, she said. “Fundraising is so important,” she said. “It’s because I have all of my medications that I can live a normal life.”

To stay healthy Donahue takes medication called pancrease with every meal and snacks. This medication helps break down her food, because the digestive enzymes produced by her pancreas are blocked by mucus. Donahue also uses a mist nebulizer and wears a vibrating vest for 20 minutes every day. Both these mechanisms help loosen the mucus preventing it from sticking in and blocking her lungs.

It’s important for friend and project partner Caroline Etnier to help Donahue battle this disease. “I’ve seen her take all the meds and watched the life expectancy go up,” she said.

Etnier has watched Donahue grow up with the disease. The girls first met on the bus in the second grade. Donahue showed Etnier her club fingers, which she said about 75 percent of Cystic Fibrosis patients have, though doctors can’t explain why. The two have been friends ever since.

Donahue, Etnier and seven other seniors will wash cars, host ice cream socials, sell bracelets, and host a band competition all as a part of their final senior project for Cape Elizabeth High School.

Etnier with friends and project partners Whitney Legge and Hillary Nelson first started raising money for Cystic Fibrosis last year at school.

Outgoing Assistant High School Principal Mark Tinkham who is overseeing the senior transition projects described this group of girls as “tight knit.” Most of them, he said, have supported Donahue through years of coping with the disease.

“For them, it’s not simply a three-week project, it’s become more of a vocation,” he said.

Nelson, Etnier, Legge and others began selling rubber “Live Strong” wristbands last year and raised more than $500 for Great Strides, a cystic fibrosis fundraising walk around Payson Park in Portland.

“I didn’t even know they were doing it. I just came into school and they said, ‘we got $500 today,’” said Donahue.

Knowing somebody with the disease, said Legge, “makes you want to work harder to raise money.”

Nelson agreed, “It just hits so close to home.”

It’s exactly this energy and engagment Tinkham hopes the project will uncover in students. “They can go out and touch a life and make a difference,” said Tinkham. It is this real world connection that yields the most worthwhile learning experiences, he said.

Less than a decade ago, no one could have imagined a small, local business could be a lucrative contender in the world market. But just a few years ago, no one had heard of companies like Reminderband, Pre-Auto, BatsBatsBats.com or AlarmingProducts.com either.

With the advent of the Internet, a few Cache Valley residents are taking part in business opportunities previously unheard of. From a go-to guy for technical support to a one-man business and a company that sells millions of products worldwide, local community members are jumping into a flourishing industry: online business.

“There comes a time in life when you realize you just have to take a chance and see where it goes – that’s what we did,” said Clay Broadbent, vice president of Reminderband, a Logan company that makes rubber wristbands. “A combination of fortunate timing, good decisions and forward thinking got us ahead.”

Broadbent said Reminderband’s three and one-half year lifespan has been a “wild ride.”

“We had no idea what we were getting into,” he said. What started out as a plan to capitalize on the fad of Lance Armstrong-inspired wristbands in smaller, personalized quantities exploded in a matter of weeks.

While working other jobs, Broadbent and co-founders Scott Huskinson and Aaron Bishop put together a “bare bones” Web site with an available e-mail address if Internet surfers were interested in ordering wristbands. The next morning, 60 e-mails were waiting in their inbox.

Propelled almost solely by Internet advertising, Reminderband sold seven million bands in 2005 alone. The company is currently working to add several new products to their lineup, including the recent addition of iFrogz iPod cases, iPod covers in a variety of styles and colors.

“Most of us at Reminderband don’t want to live in big cities,” Broadbent said. “The Internet allows us to live in the valley, where we have roots and we love it here, and be a part of world markets.”….

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Imagine waking up one day and having to hurry and grab a few items that are expensive or close to you and driving off leaving everything behind. This is what many had to do when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. For Craig Karger, a sophomore at Tulane University, he left with just his lap top and iPod as he drove off to the Houston airport to fly to Miami to meet his parents.

Like many others Karger had to find a new place to go to college so he enrolled in Miami but wanted to be able to go back to Tulane as soon as possible. He wanted to make a difference even if it was just him raising money for his school.

“Craig was so upset and he wanted to do something to help his university so we told him we would do whatever it took for him if he wanted to raise money or help in some way,” said Craig’s mom Lori Karger.

With his parents help he started a Web site for Tulane University called savetulane.com
and created the Save Nola wristbands with the university president’s permission to use the Tulane wave. Craig wanted to sell the wristbands to raise awareness and money for the university he loved.

“Craig was on an online forum for Tulane when he asked President Cowen of the university if he could use the wave on the wristbands and he was granted permission,” said Lori.

After generating buzz about the wristbands and getting media coverage the Save Tulane project has raised $8,000 all of the proceeds from the wristbands go to the Commission to Bring Back New Orleans. Craig gave all the members of the commission a bracelet.

The entire Tulane basketball team is wearing the wristbands along with former Vice Presidential Nominee John Edwards.

“It’s really taken off and it’s been great to see my son put so much effort into such a great cause, all on his own,” said Lori.

“We have had a great experience working with Reminderband and appreciate all the help we have received,” said Lori.